Ingenious Table That Keeps Cats Near—but Not on Top of—Laptops Snags Award

PETA Praises Chinese Firm’s CATable for Brightening Cats’ Days and Keeping Keyboards Clean

For Immediate Release:
May 7, 2014

Contact:
Shakira Croce 202-483-7382

Hangzhou, China –

While home-office workers are toiling away at their laptops, their feline friends are left to find ways to entertain themselves—and often, that means plopping right down on the middle of a toasty warm keyboard! But now, Hao Ruan of China-based architectural design company LYCS Architecture has come up with a solution that’s taken social media by storm: the CATable. The CATable is an attractive table filled with tunnels and hidden levels for cats to explore to their curiosity’s content or to lounge in, all in easy reach of the guardians whose company cats crave—without placing laptops at risk of having their keyboards clogged by loose fur or errant paws.

For devising a chic and innovative way to reconcile home-office workers’ needs with those of their feline companions, Ruan and LYCS will receive an Innovator for Animals Award from PETA.

“Not only will the CATable improve the lives of cats, its very existence will also remind people that cats need companionship and stimulation during the day,” says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. “PETA hopes more designers will follow LYCS’s lead and come up with creative ways to make our homes a friendlier place for the animals who rely on us to keep them safe and happy indoors.”

There are myriad reasons for keeping cats indoors. In addition to deadly diseases such as feline AIDS, leukemia, and infectious peritonitis that cats left outdoors can contract, there are dangers posed by dogs, wildlife, and cruel humans. Cats left outdoors are sometimes poisoned, shot, or tortured by bored teenagers or people annoyed when cats leave footprints on their car hoods or dig in their flowerbeds. Cats can also be picked up by “bunchers,” people who cruise neighborhoods for friendly dogs and cats who can easily be grabbed and sold to dealers, who in turn sell them to laboratories to be used in cruel experiments.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.